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Levelling Up You Email Ecommerce Marketing

June 29 - 2020

Email Marketing Strategy 5 min read

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Ecommerce email marketing isn’t new to the industry but with an increase in online stores, it’s more important than ever to make sure that you’re getting your email marketing working so your customers are getting the right information at the right time.  With a little bit of work in creating an email marketing programme to sit alongside your ecommerce store, you’ll be able to provide a better service to your customers as well as generating more sales. It’s all about getting that low hanging fruit. A lot of ecommerce platforms come complete with a marketing suite you can use to power your emails – or if they don’t they easily integrate with email marketing platforms like Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor. With email sparking joy across the lockdown lands right now, it’s a great opportunity for you to give more and then get more back. In case you’re wondering where to start or looking to get inspiration for new ideas, we’ve outlined 5 examples of key emails you should be sending to your customers. 

  • Post-Purchase
  • Pre-Post Delivery
  • Gifts
  • Shopping Cart Abandonment
  • Incentives

How to do email marketing for ecommerce

Over the last few years, many people have realised selling online is easier than they thought. With many of these new online stores now secure in their new footing, it’s time to take your ecommerce to the next level. The good news is this is easy too. With a little bit of work in creating an email marketing programme to sit alongside your ecommerce store, you’ll be able to provide a better service to your customers as well as generating more sales. It’s all about getting that low hanging fruit. A lot of ecommerce platforms come complete with a marketing suite you can use to power your emails – or if they don’t they easily integrate with email marketing platforms like Mailchimp or Campaign Monitor.

Best ecommerce email automation

With email sparking joy across the lockdown lands right now, it’s a great opportunity for you to give more and then get more back. As a rule of thumb, these are the ecommerce emails you should be sending:

1. POST-PURCHASE

As soon as someone has purchased a product an email should be triggered and sent to them confirming their purchase. This email doesn’t have to be and shouldn’t be dull. It’s your chance to say thank you, to build excitement and to give the customer a true flavour of your brand and personality. It’s a prime opportunity to cross-sell related products and begin further engagement. In fact, they are 8x more likely to be opened and 6x more likely to generate revenue than any other type of emails (Experian).

2. PRE/POST DELIVERY

Never underestimate the importance of good, regular communication. Your customers now expect to be notified as to when they can expect their order. Pre-delivery emails, like the standard ‘Your order has been despatched’, are a simple and effective way of keeping your customers informed. It also significantly reduces the chance of the them contacting you directly for an update on their order, something which can save you both time and money. Post-delivery emails are a great way of kicking-in after sales support and generating repeat business. They’re also the prime opportunity for you to ask for reviews and feedback. Retailers typically see a 10%-12.5% increase in conversion rates for products with reviews when compared to those without, this leaps up to 80% for products with 20 or more reviews (Shopify). Put simply, the more positive reviews you get, the more products you’ll sell and email is a great way of encouraging people to leave reviews, especially if it’s incentivised.

3. GIFTS

Rewarding loyal customers with a gift is one of the strongest ways to build loyalty and repeat business. Triggered emails can be set up where you can reward your top spending customers with store credit after they’ve spent over a certain amount with you. Collecting useful data, like date of birth or anniversary date, means you can set these dates as triggers to ‘gift’ something to your customers. From a non-email marketing perspective, a guaranteed way to spark joy in your customers is to include a little something extra in the order. Cycling brand Wiggle became famous for the packs of Haribo they included in their orders while a recent purchase from Roundhill Roastery in Bath came complete with bunny ears!

4. SHOPPING CART ABANDONMENT

Remember all those times you’ve added something to your basket and forgotten about it? You’re not alone. Research carried out by Business Insider found there could be up to $4 trillion of revenue waiting to be recovered from abandoned shopping carts on an annual basis. They also found that when shopping cart abandonment emails are triggers, 64% then go on to complete a purchase. It is the simplest and most effective way to improve your average order value.

5. INCENTIVES

It’s fairly common now to land on an online store and be greeted with a pop up encouraging you to sign up and receive 10% off your first order. Why? Because it works. The user enters their email address, they get added to your database, and then get a welcome email with a 10% off code included in it. Again, these features often come as standard in popular ecommerce platforms. A huge well done to everyone out there who has dipped their toes into ecommerce for the first time. It’s daunting and takes courage. That’s why it’s been amazing to see so many of you throw yourselves into with 100% commitment. If you’d like to take the next steps on your ecommerce journey and get some help creating an email marketing programme to support it, we’d love to hear from you.

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